1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to medical devices and methods. More particularly, the invention relates to devices and methods for enhancing cardiovascular valve repair, especially the repair of heart valves such as the mitral and tricuspid valves.
In recent years, many advances have been made to reduce the invasiveness of cardiac surgery. In an attempt to avoid open, stopped-heart procedures, which may be accompanied by high patient morbidity and mortality, many devices and methods have been developed for operating on a heart through smaller incisions, operating on a beating heart, and even performing cardiac procedures via transvascular access. Different types of cardiac procedures, such as cardiac ablation techniques for treating atrial fibrillation, stenting procedures for atherosclerosis, and valve repair procedures for treating conditions such as mitral valve regurgitation have experienced significant technological advances. In implementing many minimally invasive cardiac surgery techniques, especially beating-heart techniques, one of the most significant challenges is exposing and stabilizing a portion of cardiac tissue to be operated upon. Another challenge, once exposure and stability are achieved, is to effectively deploy a given treatment into or on the target cardiac tissue using minimally invasive devices.
One type of cardiac surgery which may benefit from less invasive techniques is heart valve repair. Traditional treatment of heart valve stenosis or regurgitation, such as mitral or tricuspid regurgitation, typically involves an open-heart surgical procedure to replace or repair the valve. Valve repair procedures typically involve annuloplasty, a set of techniques designed to restore the valve annulus shape and strengthen the annulus. Conventional annuloplasty surgery generally requires a large incision into the thorax of the patient (a thoracotomy), and sometimes a median sternotomy (cutting through the middle of the sternum). These open heart, open chest procedures routinely involve placing the patient on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine for sustained periods so that the patient's heart and lungs can be artificially stopped during the procedure. Finally, valve repair and replacement procedures are typically technically challenging and require a relatively large incision through the wall of the heart to access the valve.
Due to the highly invasive nature of open heart valve repair or replacement, many patients, such as elderly patients, patients having recently undergone other surgical procedures, patients with comorbid medical conditions, children, late-stage heart failure patients, and the like, are often considered too high-risk to undergo heart valve surgery and are relegated to progressive deterioration and cardiac enlargement. Often, such patients have no feasible alternative treatments for their heart valve conditions.
To obviate this situation, a number of devices and methods for repairing cardiac valves in a less invasive manner have been described. Some devices provide for heart valve repair through minimally invasive incisions or intravascularly, while others improve upon open heart surgical procedures on beating hearts, stopped hearts or both. For example, several improved devices and methods for heart valve repair are described in one or more patent applications filed by the inventors of the present invention and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. For further description of such devices and methods, reference may be made to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/461,043, filed on Jun. 13, 2003, previously incorporated by reference.
As mentioned above, some of the difficulties in performing minimally invasive intracardiac surgery include exposing and stabilizing an area of cardiac tissue to be operated upon and effectively operating on that tissue using minimally invasive instruments. Sufficient exposure is essential for allowing the physician to locate and perform a procedure on the targeted cardiac tissue. Stabilization further facilitates an intracardiac procedure, especially in a beating heart. In minimally invasive, beating heart surgery on a cardiac valve annulus, exposure and stabilization are especially challenging, due to rapid movement of the annulus and the heart, the small size of the annulus, and the blood-filled surgical field. While a cardiac valve may be visualized via transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE), it is much more difficult to locate the annulus itself, as it is basically a small band of fibrous tissue. Exposure of the annulus is essential, however, since annular tissue is far stronger than surrounding valve leaflet and heart wall tissue, and repair procedures performed on a valve annulus will be much more effective than those performed on other tissue adjacent the annulus. Even after a valve annulus is exposed and stabilized, it may still be challenging to effectively and efficiently operate on the annulus to repair the valve, using minimally invasive devices.
Many minimally invasive or “less invasive” surgical procedures other than heart valve repair would also benefit from improved exposure and/or stabilization. For example, improved exposure and stabilization could facilitate other cardiac procedures, such as accessing the coronary sinus for placement of an implantable device or for performing a procedure, placing pacemaker leads in one or more areas of the heart, ablation procedures such as ablation around the pulmonary veins to treat atrial fibrillation, atrial-septal defect repair procedures, and the like. Improved stabilization and exposure could also be used to enhance non-cardiac procedures such cinching or otherwise treating a bladder, stomach, gastroesophageal junction, vascular structure, gall bladder or the like.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have devices and methods for enhancing exposure and/or stabilization in transvascular, minimally invasive and other “less invasive” surgical procedures, such as heart valve repair and other cardiac procedures. Ideally, for example, such devices and method could be used for exposing and stabilizing a cardiac valve annulus for performing a valve repair procedure. Ideally, such devices and methods could be used in minimally invasive or “less invasive” beating heart procedures performed via a variety of access routes, such as transvascular or transthoracic. Also ideally, some devices might be used for exposing a valve annulus, others might expose and stabilize an annulus, and still others might expose, stabilize and administer a therapy to an annulus, thus providing a physician with numerous procedural options. At least some of these objectives will be met by the present invention.
2. Description of the Background Art
Published U.S. Application 2002/0156526 describes a catheter-based method for performing annuloplasty. Published U.S. Application 2002/0042621 describes a heart valve annuloplasty system with constrictable plication bands which are optionally attached to a linkage strip. Published U.S. Application 2002/0087169 describes a remote controlled catheter system which can be used to deliver anchors and a tether for performing an annuloplasty procedure. Other patent publications of interest include WO01/26586; US2001/0005787; US2001/0014800; US2002/0013621; US2002/0029080; US2002/0035361; US2002/0042621; US2002/0095167; and US2003/0074012. U.S. patents of interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,014,492; 4,042,979; 4,043,504; 4,055,861; 4,700,250; 5,366,479; 5,450,860; 5,571,215; 5,674,279; 5,709,695; 5,752,518; 5,848,969; 5,860,992; 5,904,651; 5,961,539; 5,972,004; 6,165,183; 6,197,017; 6,250,308; 6,260,552; 6,283,993; 6,269,819; 6,312,447; 6,332,893; and 6,524,338. Publications of interest include De Simone et al. (1993) Am. J. Cardiol. 73:721-722, and Downing et al. (2001) Heart Surgery Forum, Abstract 7025.